Manufacture of gas.



J. BUEB.

MANUFACTURE 0F GAS.

Patented June 5, 1917.I

3 nu@ nto@ un if).

' APPLICATION FILED OCT. Il. 1913.'.

JULrUs Bums,v or DESSAU, GERMANY.

IVIANUFACTURE OF GASS Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented J une 5, 191W..

Application filed October 11, 1913. i Serial No. 794,549.

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JULrus BUEB, a sub- 'ject of the Emperor of Germany, and a provements in the art of making gas and it particularly refers to an improved method of distilling coal in a vertical retort-oven for the production of4 gas at a greater speed than heretofore possible. In United States Patent No. 904,043 I have described a method of making gas by the distillation of coal in a vertical retortoven whereby great advantages in the form of superior' gas as well asl of tar Were obtained.

In the present invention I describe .certain details which play an important part in obtaining a considerably higher efiiciency of the gas making part of the invention, resulting in great economic advantages, the said details referring chiefly to the method of operating the vertical retort-oven.

In the method of running the vertical retort-oven described in United States Pat ent No. 904,043 a temperature of 1400O C.

`'was maintained in the lower part of the retort-ovenl This practice originated in the precautionary desire to avoid the considerable Wear and tear on the retort and thus to spare exchange of same in short intervals inasmuch as the fire clay, of which the retort is made, is rather susceptible .to crumbling if it is alternately overheated, even for a short time, and then slightly cooled on'.

In carrying out the process according to United States Patent No. 904,03 and some other patents more or less relating thereto, I have discovered, however', that I can greatly increase the eiiiciency of the gas making process, attaining thereby at vthe same time other considerable advantages,

` if I deviate from the present operation of the vertical retort-oven in so 'far that, I

' heat the retort asvhighly as possible and in accordance therewith change the ,construction of "the retort by substituting silica for the fire clay productsusually applied heretofore, as for instance silica molded 'by means of an added binder into bricks or other suitable forms.

In order to obtain the greatest ei'liciency of il 3 gas making process, in the highest development of which I Was formerly handicapped by the nature of the building material of the retort, I now expose the retort, preferably the lower part, to a temperature approximatingthe melting point of silica, which I believe to be about 1870O C., a temperature which has never been applied up to now in the art of making gas owing to the above mentioned natural shortcomings of fire clay material.

For the better understanding of my invention I shall describe the construction as Well as arrangement of the vertical retorts and illustrate the mode of execution in the accompanying drawing, in Which- Figure' l is a vertical longitudinal section through a gas producing apparatus on the broken'line C-D in Fig. 2, and Fig. 2 is a horizontal section through same on line A-B in Fig. l.

Similar letters of reference refer to Similar parts in both views.

c denotes a gas generator of any known construction, e' is an oven formed of brick- Work or the like, in which a battery of vertical retorts a, a is arranged, and c is a space left beneath for the introduction of trucks or Wagons intended to receive and to carry olii the coke produced.

The oven t comprisesa top plate Z and a bottom m, which latter rests` on a bottom plate supported byv suitable shoulders on the internal Walls of the oven e' and an iron beam o. The cavity of the oven is divided by several (here two) horizontal partition i plates g, 'g into several (here three) superposed zones. The partition plates g, q are each provided on one side with an opening (not shown) Afor the iire gases passing through.

The retort-s a, a are made of silica bricks or silica broughtA into any other form suitable for the construction of same and are preferably given an oval or a similar cross section and made to taper uniformly upward. They are so disposed in the oven c', that the hot iire gases produced in the generator c and entering the oven z' by means of the flues p, p pass around the retorts a', a in severalsuperposed Zones, in the lowermost of avhich the temperature is the high est. The retorts` a, a are open at the top and at the bottom and put tightly into the bottom plate 'm n and the top plate Z of roo the oven. The space of gasification formed in each retort ,is provided at the top with a coal hopper (not shown) or a device f for the introduction of the coal, a gas-discharge gand a turnable cover z and atthe bottom with a horizontal shutterd or simi lar device. In the oven compartments-a convenient number of vertical partition Walls r, r are disposed between the internal although a temperature approximating, but less than the melting point of silica may be reached .if desired, and are then filled up l to the top nor nearly so with coal while .keepingthemheated The-heating of the p jretortsfis next carried on, care being taken '-thatfthe retorts remain filled. It is due,

ent p invention comes in.

however, to the considerable. increase of the., heat up to .1600o C. and above where the difference and great importance of the'pres'- l `By new method of heating the coal f within ak retortmade from silica and heaty .jing ."s'aid enorr'nc'ius i'eat resistance of silica, I edect letortto a v very much higher temperati eitlian heretofore, -owing to, the

all the l noniena of the destructive distillation withitsaccompanyiiig chemical as Well as physical changes the coal as describedffin United States Patent No. 904,043, .page 2, lines 253-64. However,`by

, my new processI vcreate also other condiltions-by which lI produce the gas in a veryy milch sho'rter'tinie than before as thespeed of tl'i-distillation of the coal is not going proportionately to the increase in temperattire', but. advances at. al much greater ratio. .By anin'crease in teiiiperature above ,14000 C. vI acceleratethe distillation of the coal at suchl a. ratev thatv the time ,necessary to finish one chargeof the retorts is yreduced about 30% for each 100 C. increase above.

A further great and important improvement by Amy new process lies in the fact`- that `I avoid any decrease in the quality of the gas.

None of the processes using retorts inthe horizontal or iii an oblique position could, as

soon as the'applicatioii of higher heat comes .in question, overcome andA avoid a decrease v in the quality of the gas owing to the decomposition of the generated hydrocarbons. In

this regard they all are tied to a lower tempera'ture than I vapplied in rmy process described' in. United safes Patent No. 904,043 inasmuch as in making gas in a horizontal as well as in an oblique retort it cannot be prevented that an empty space isformed on top of the coal owing to the shrinkage of the latter during the destructive distillation.

In all retorts operated in the horizontal or in an oblique position the gases naturally i must strike along the upper wall and therefore, in order to escape the danger of decomposing the hydrocarbons, the temperature of the retort must be kept as low as advisable.

The application of a heat higher than ever applied to a vertical retort for making gas enables me also to furthermore enrich both quality and quantity of the 4produced gas. By introducing, viii the last stage of the coking process, water vapor (steam) to the coke in the lowerinost part of the retort I may produce considerable quantities of water-gas, the latter entering into reaction with tar, as far as such is still undecomposed in the retort, resulting in the formation of methane. n

It is obvious that the building of the vertical retort as used in my coking process illustrated by' United States Patent No.

-904,043,.froin silica and the application of .heat exceeding considerably that applied in any'otlier coking process `represent the most important progress evermade in the indus- 'try of making gas in vretorts, owing to the advantages offered by the -possibility-to produce'a greater amount of large coke,- to materially reduce theA production vof small coke land to reducejhat of breezeto an inconsiderable minimum, the relativelyl low inside temperature wit-hin the retort,.the superior quality of gas and greater-quantities of such,

the low temperature of ,the oifgoinggases,

the acceleration' of the distilling process and the enormous saving of time achieved thereby and the increased efficiency of the plant consequently resulting in a reduction of the size of the plant-and in' an :important economy as to the costof for running same.

11o plant and expenses Being well aware that further changes in the f orm of parts and details of construction herein shown and `described can be made without departing from the spirit or, sacri-` ficing the advantage thereof, I therefore reserve the rightto make such changes as fall within the scope of the same as I claim them part of my invention, as for instance the substitution v.of silica by a silicious or otherl material exhibiting a similar heat resistance as silica and displaying such physical land chemical -properties as to render ita suitable substitute for silica.

perature above the limit characterizing that point where retorts of fire clay are disinand'vbelow the melting point of Silica is i within the Scope of. my invention and' that Iv inziy expose any portion or the -Whole of Y `'temperaturer4 point otsiliea. l

The `process of making -in distillingeoal vin a vertical' retort at my retortv to' the temperature desired.

W hat I claim' and desire to secure by Letf ters'- Patent is:

*The prooese ofmaking-gae Consistingvk in clis-tillingcoal *ina* Vertical retort at aA approximating j--the melting gas ve'o'nsistng teinp'erature` above the disintegration point of reeclay anfl belowthe melting ypoint of a silica.

3, Theprocess of inaking gas Consistingin distillingfcoal in av verticalretort and.

inaiiritaining-- said Vretort at a temperature apn 'ing the; distilling process.

proximating theim'eitmg point fsiii'ca auf# 4. The\ process ofrnaking gas, consisting in ldistillin'g ooalin a1 verticalretort, Inaintaining 'said retort `at temperature'A above the disintegration point of re-el'ayjand v approximat-ing-the melting point of silcayadlcinittin'gwater vapor Jinto the` Vertical retort 1 toward fthe lend.. of 'the distillationthereby generating Water, gaS and' reacting With Water gas 'on the vtar remaining in' the coke.

ing iifitnesses.v I l i JULIUS BURB.

Witnesses;

Ammin` BRAi'KM,V SEABURY MASTIGK.

1 In'. testimony whereof-I have signed' this Vspecification in the presence of two subserib- 

